Northeastern Students Get Ready For Annual Underwear Run

Last year, thousands of students stripped down and ran through the streets.

In about 10 days, thousands of students from Northeastern University plan on stripping down to their skivvies and skipping through the city.

At the start of the first semester, on Parents Weekend, students from the school take part in the annual “Underwear Run,” where they jog through parts of Boston, wearing next-to-nothing, to show residents that this is “a college city,” according to event organizers. The event is held in order to kickoff a new academic year.

A Facebook page has been set up for this year’s event, and already 926 people have committed to strolling the streets sans-pants. It will be the eighth annual Underwear Run at Northeastern.

The Underwear Run always falls on the Friday night of Parents Weekend, which this year happens to be on October 18. “[It’s] time to give our parents a glimpse of the reputable college they’re financing, and the time to blow off steam. So lets get crazy and make the night ours,” organizers wrote on the event page for the Underwear Run.

Organizers said the jaunt through the city is not a race, but rather a chance to “get loose” and “act like kids again.”

The first Underwear Run was organized by former Northeastern student Story Wibby, and his friends, in 2006. He spread the word about the event via Facebook, and it has been held ever since.

The first run happened on Columbus Day weekend, and attracted roughly 400 students. Last year, however, more than 2,000 people reportedly participated in the nearly-nude tradition that takes students through the streets, and into parts of the Prudential Center, before ending back on the school’s campus.

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